Jex Malone (36 page)

“My life is,” he begins.

“A mess,” I reply. “Just like mine.”

“I was just going to say complicated,” Cooper insists with another one of those crinkle-cut smiles.

I give him a little smile back and grab the pillow out from under his face. “If you don't mind, I'm staying here. On the floor. It's nonnegotiable,” I say, collapsing on the ground next to the couch. It seems like forever until I drift off and we don't say another word. I'm not even sure if Cooper ever falls asleep.

When I wake up in the morning, he has covered me up to my ears with that white comforter. It smells like him, earthy and soapy and handsome. But it's just cotton and fluff.

Cooper himself is gone.

“Doesn't your intuition tell you anything?”

—Ariadne Oliver,
Dead Man's Folly

The wake-up call comes at the crack of dawn and without the usual banter as we begin to prepare for the last stand: The trip to the castle at a new amusement park called Wonderland. The only other castles even sort of around are the Hearst Castle in Northern California, and that's an eight-hour drive from here. There's Disneyland, and we figure that's our second stop if we strike out at Wonderland. Wonderland was just a big empty parcel of land before developers built up the Anaheim property near the other famous parks.

They called their big mansion Princess Manor.

Maybe Patty was buried in the Princess basement.

Insane.

I know.

Deva orders several egg-white omelets for us and then takes her last bath in the enormous pool of a tub without even her usual laundry list of complaints. Her silence is almost unnerving. Boarding school in Switzerland might not be such a threat, but a promise for her.

Nat and Cissy look at each other with dread while actual fear stabs my heart. Maybe Nevada isn't even my home away from home for the summer anymore. I'm sure my father is so sick of me and my shenanigans by now that he's probably ready to have a quick hissy fit and then toss me on the next plane home to New Jersey to get rid of me for good.

Maybe I did find a way to never see him again.

I look at Nat and Cissy, who have never done a bad thing in their lives, and their faces are totally fear-stricken.
How did we make such a mess of our lives so easily and so early? Why did we get into that old station wagon in the first place? Why did we even look into this unsolvable case? Why did I even come west for the summer?

For the last time, we make our way out of the hotel and to the junker car around the corner. Deva has already Googled Wonderland and found out that it's only an hour and some change to get to Anaheim in the heavy early-morning traffic. Not even the low tones of the radio seem to break the silence on this ride to futility.

“Hey, I see the giant wizard's hat in the distance!” cries Cissy, who can't help but get a bit excited when the newest theme park magically appears on the horizon.

Nat's completely silent, almost in a trance, holding the artwork in her lap and studying it so intently that she actually rips the paper. Last night, I could hear her reading Patty's journal again, whispering several sentences and taking notes and then taping those pieces of paper on the wall. Now, she's back to the artwork that has led us on this wild goose chase.

“This thing on here really does look like a castle,” she remarks. “I know it sounds extremely nuts. Crazy. But we have to just go there. To wrap it up. To be sure.”

“I don't know what else to do,” says Nat in a broken little voice that I've never heard come out of her. For a split second, I want to lose it again and my stomach starts to churn because if Nat's ready to cry then we're really sunk.

Cooper can't contain himself any longer. In a booming voice, he shouts, “Yeah! Like my weirdo neighbor buried my sister in a fake castle at an amusement park. Are you girls nuts? How the hell could he sneak around and bury a body! It's just pathologically insane for you to even take me to an amusement park.”

“Cooper,” Nat says in the quiet voice because she's remarkably quick on turning the tears switch off, “Just go with us one more time. There is the last clue. We will never ask another thing from you.”

For a few minutes longer, everyone is silent, including Deva. Soon, four car doors slam and we're the only frowning people trudging our way to the front entrance gates as annoyingly cheerful music fills our ears. I know it's supposed to remind of us of happier, simpler times when life was about suspending disbelief. We have run out of that kind of childhood nonsense. In real life, mice and some young girls don't speak. They end up in traps. Dead.

Put that in your fake wizard hat.

“Just follow us,” Nat says to Cooper with a calm sureness in her voice that even impresses me. From the corner of my eye, I can see that Nat has three Post-Its in her hand with scribbles on them.

“For once, let's not split up,” Deva says. “This place is too big. Let's just go to the castle, look around, and then we'll split. I have to go home and pack for Switzerland.”

“Huh?” I say.

“Boarding school,” she says in a clipped voice. “My own personal jail.”

It's 10
A.M.
and the park is just starting to hum. Workers in starched, bright outfits are everywhere with sunny smiles on their faces. “Welcome to Wonderland. Have a super day,” they say with cheery voices.

“Smile,” the character Wendy Wonderful says as she points her magic wand at Nat. Everywhere around us are people in creature suits. Nat would normally be dying to take a picture with Wee Will Wonderful, but she doesn't dare, or should I say care? From the tiny sparkle in her eyes, I know Deva thinks that Woo-Doo Wonderful's colorful gypsy skirt is ultra cute, but she doesn't say anything given Cooper's mood.

Princess Wonderful's white castle appears out of nowhere and jets high into the sky. It looks just like it does on every postcard and in the ads—a gorgeous white fantasy structure complete with a bright purple roof that has flags and glittery streamers flying from it. I gasp because I didn't realize how cool the castle was until now that I'm close enough to walk up to it and then into the enormous open wood doors.

After all, it is every little girl's perfect fantasy to live in a princess castle, although few get that dream. But you could still wish that you had a perfect family and lived in a big white mansion without a care in the world and two parents who actually loved each other. You could also wish that you walked around in a beautiful white sparkling gown like the character of Pippa the Princess, who is now approaching us.

It is just all pipe dreams. This house is made out of plastic and old Pips over there is just some girl in a rental dress who probably works at McDonald's at night to make ends meet.

“Welcome to my castle,” the fairy-tale princess Pippa says. The actress is in her twenties with creamy white skin and a very toothy smile. I can see her brown hair under the blonde wig and smile. Alas, even Pippa wasn't enough in the first place to be a fake princess. Even she had to get a makeover.

As a group, we walk through the castle three different times. My heart sinks even deeper if that's even possible. There is no way you could hide a tissue in that castle or wander off for a second because there are about twenty Wonderland workers and security guards at every turn. Whatever might be under this castle, buried deep before this place was built, is obviously staying there, as in unhappily ever after.

“Pointless, pointless,” Cooper mutters under his breath, glaring at Nat, who is still staring at her notes. Now, we're sitting on a little stone hedge just outside of the castle. The girls are sipping on iced mango frozen drinks and Cooper is on his third Coke of the day—and his zillionth frown.

“I'm so sorry, Cooper,” Nat says, tears springing to her eyes. “I really did think I knew what I was talking about when it came to the clues. I swear I would have never led any of you on this wild goose chase without good reason. It's my fault; it's just all my fault. I'm a terrible … ”

Deva puts an arm around Nat. “At least you had a plan and you followed it through from your heart,” she says. “There is no one to blame. I thought we should follow the clues, too.”

Suddenly, I'm just furious and can't believe we came up with nothing. This entire horrible summer was for nothing! I didn't get to know my father, formed this pointless Drew-Ids thing, and totally screwed up our first case and our lives.

For a second, hot tears of utter frustration fill my eyes and I let them roll down. The other shoe drops soundly in front of me.
If my father hates me now, I know I'll never see Nat, Deva, Cissy, or Cooper ever again
.
Why would my father even invite me back next summer when I'm so much trouble? And it's not like I can just jet off to Vegas to check in on them. In a few days, I will never see the best friends of my life … ever again.

In the next second, I know I need something—anything—to remember my friends by just in case my father throws me on the next jet to anywhere. I want something beautiful that's even better than some silly cell phone picture.

I know exactly what I want.

In front of the princess' castle is one of those caricature artists. It might be a forever kind of nice thing to get a pencil drawing of all the girls together. I know that Cooper probably won't pose, although I'm dying to show my friends in New Jersey a sketch of the boy I'll never see again or really kiss.
He's the boy who should be my first real kiss, but he won't be. But these girls can still be my friends
—
as in forever friends.

“I need you guys to do something for me,” I say in a wobbly voice while trying to hold back the waterworks. “There's some lady over there drawing pictures of people. I'd like all of you to pose. Please. It means a lot to me.”

With those words, a tear falls, but only Deva notices when I quickly brush it away like I'm having some sort of allergy attack.

“Oh, forget it,” Cooper announces.

“Cooper Matthews,” Deva says in her most stern voice. “Can I talk to you for a sec? As in immediately.”

Deva motions him to the next bench over. A few heated minutes later, he's back. In a meek voice, Cooper says, “I can't even believe I'm going to do this. It's so stupid. But she can draw my dumb picture. I'll go first—to get it over with.”

I never expected him to do it, but the four of us girls are suddenly injected with a dose of happiness and walk over to the caricaturist, who is hovered over her chalks.

“It's ten dollars a picture,” she says without looking up. “And I need to know your name and where you're from because I write that in the corner of the finished work.”

“Oh man, this is just the dumbest, stupidest … ” Cooper says under his breath.

“His name is Cooper. He lives in Green Valley, Nevada. You want his address and phone number?” Deva jokes and proceeds to give it to the artist, which makes Cooper roll his eyes.

“I see,” says the young woman, who seems to take forever choosing several pieces of chalk and then with her finger motions for Cooper to sit on an apple box in front of her.

I see Cooper squirm, but he sits there frowning in his best sullen James Dean pose. A few minutes go by and she continues to draw and draw. Nat, Cissy, and Deva quietly grumble about why it's taking so long, and then they focus on Cooper to see if he will ever crack a smile.

That's a negative on the smile.

Even fifteen minutes later, the artist is still drawing until finally she smiles and says, “I think it's over now.”

Weird girl
, I think as I dig an elbow into Nat's side. Cooper could obviously not care less about his picture, but he doesn't want to be completely rude. So he takes a few steps closer to where the girl remains hunched over her chalks.